Search

a member of any of various Protestant sects, formed in Europe after 1520, that denied the validity of infant baptism, baptized believers only, and advocated social and economic reforms as well as the complete separation of church and state.
Archaic. (def 1).
of or relating to Anabaptists or Anabaptism.
Historical Examples

This frightful punishment seems to have been reserved for the Anabaptist martyrs.
A History of the Reformation (Vol. 2 of 2) Thomas M. Lindsay

It is directly from them that the Anabaptist movement of history dates its origin.
German Culture Past and Present Ernest Belfort Bax

No one was admitted into an Anabaptist community without being warned of the probable fate which lay before him.
A History of the Reformation (Vol. 2 of 2) Thomas M. Lindsay

I know not what to say or do about that Anabaptist as Holroyd calls him.
Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 1 (of 2) Edward Gibbon

The reformers were not tolerant; for a woman was burnt for Arianism in 1550 and a male Anabaptist in 1551.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 4 Various

Then a court was established to try the Anabaptist prisoners.
A History of the Reformation (Vol. 2 of 2) Thomas M. Lindsay

Mrs. Gaunt was an Anabaptist, noted for her beneficence, which she extended to persons of all profession and persuasions.
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part F. David Hume

Upon which Candide carried him to the Anabaptist’s stable, and gave him a crust of bread.
Candide Voltaire

It was from these small beginnings that the great Anabaptist movement of ten years later arose.
German Culture Past and Present Ernest Belfort Bax

As was natural under such circumstances, we find many different strains in the developed Anabaptist movement.
German Culture Past and Present Ernest Belfort Bax

noun
a member of any of various 16th-century Protestant movements that rejected infant baptism, insisted that adults be rebaptized, and sought to establish Christian communism
a member of a later Protestant sect holding the same doctrines, esp with regard to baptism
adjective
of or relating to these movements or sects or their doctrines
n.

1530s, “one who baptizes over again,” from Modern Latin anabaptista, from Latin anabaptismus “second baptism” (used in literal sense from 4c.; see anabaptism).

Originally in English in reference to sect that practiced adult baptism and arose in Germany 1521. Probably so called because, as a new faith, they baptized converts who already had been baptized (as infants) in the older Christian churches. Modern branches only baptize once (adults) and do not actively seek converts. The name also was applied, usually opprobriously, to Baptists, perhaps due to the multiple immersions of their baptisms.